The new Alice film, Alice Through The Looking Glass, required more than 1,000 extras. It had a set, for the village of Witzend, that measured 2230 square metres and took 35,000 man-hours to build. But there’s only one Sacha Baron Cohen, and he fills the new role of Time inimitably. The personified Time is a curious figure, neither hero nor villain, and against his permission Alice travels back into Wonderland’s past to save the day.

In this role, he adopts a quasi-German accent and a buffoonish confidence. Funnily enough, in the film he’s reunited with James Bobin, the same director who worked with him on Ali G back when he started. But when NME went to meet him and find out more, he spent half of the conversation talking about Johnny Depp’s recent dog troubles in Australia, as well as detailing the weird, hot outfit he had to don.

He also let us ask about Ali G’s return at the Oscars, where he surprised the congregated masses of celebs by getting changed in the bathroom, after his wife smuggled his outfit in her bag. Was that moment a signal that Ali G will be coming back for more? Find out below: